The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

The 1896 Keller Building -- No. 722 Broadway

Close inspection reveals the date of construction nearly hidden between the huge faces below the cornice -- photo by Beyond My Ken

Broadway between East 4th Street and Astor Place
was changing fast in 1895. A
half-century before the area was among the most exclusive residential areas in
Manhattan. Then, around the time of the
Civil War, the homes were converted or razed and three- to four-story
commercial buildings lined the thoroughfare.

Nearly as quickly as these went up, they started coming
down. As the century drew to a close
taller, modern skyscrapers—some over eight stories tall—replaced the earlier
business buildings. Broadway was
changing fast.

On March 15, 1895 Engineering Review reported that “John
Keller, 46 Hart Street, Brooklyn, will erect a 9-story brick store at 722
Broadway at a cost of $65,000.” The “brick
store” would be more than that.

Keller was president of Keller Printing and the new building
would house his offices and printing operation, other loft space for rental
income and a retail space at street level.

Keller commissioned the German-born architect Francis A.
Minuth to design the new structure.
What resulted was a slim 9-story Renaissance Revival building with
attic, topped with a domed tower. At the
time when late Victorian tastes demanded over-all decoration and imagination-catching details,
Minuth filled the bill.

Snarling lions and detailed wreaths support the third floor cornice -- photo by Alice Lum

The alternating bands of granite and limestone that formed the
side piers of the first floor created a stark striped effect. Above, cast iron window framing allowed for
expanses of plate glass beneath a bracketed cornice upheld by robust lions’ heads
and wreaths. The piers continued upward
in light-colored brick with decorative terra cotta bands. Between, the façade bowed out in a continuous
row of sunlight-drenching windows.

photo by Beyond My Ken

Above the seventh floor, where stylized Corinthian columns replaced
the slender cast iron supports of the floors below, marvelous terra cotta heads
serve as brackets for the overhanging cornice.
Peculiar at least, their “hair” is leafy foliage and the wreaths below
their chins are held up by their mustaches and ribbons held between their
teeth.

The arched openings of the floor above are separated by
square brick engaged columns with Corinthian capitals—one featuring the face of
a youthful maiden, the other a snarling lion.
Lush fruited terra cotta garlands decorate the spandrels of the outer
windows. A glowering head in the hearty base
of the curved balcony at this level sticks out his tongue at the passing
shoppers on Broadway below.

Invisible from street level, the stylized capitals of contain a young woman and a lion -- photo by Alice Lum

Above it all, a prim angular copper clad dormer fronted the
tower.

Keller moved his printing company into No. 722 in 1896 upon
the completion of the building. The
firm had devised the concept of “roll tickets” – familiar to movie goers still
today. The tickets would be a staple of
Keller’s income and the firm advertised them “to be used in Bowling Alleys, Billiard
Rooms, Lunch Rooms, etc.” The idea was
quickly taken up by other printing houses, though, and Keller’s ad reminded
prospective customers that “We are the pioneers.”

In 1900, with the millinery and apparel district engulfing
the area, Keller Printing Company offered its services to the garment and hat manufacturers. The American Hatter noted that the company “are
well known to the trade as headquarters for trimmers’ and finishers’ size-marks
made on rolls with postage stamp perforations, put up in specially constructed
cabinets, which not only insure against loss, but which makes a very economical,
handy, and cheap device for the use of hat manufacturers.”

Obtaining Keller’s size labels would be convenient for
several apparel firms who moved into the building. Fischer & Co. was here in 1900, makers of
women’s clothing. That year the
wholesaler advertised 1,000 tailor-made suits and skirts available to the
public. Along with Fischer were the
clothing manufacturers H. L. Herschfield & Co. and M. Resler. In 1904 Rose Landes & Co. was in the
building, making ladies’ hats.

Before long Keller would have competition in its own
building when Pioneer Ticket Co. moved in, advertising in 1908 the “Best
quality, lowest prices. One order will
convince.”

In 1912 the brick tower with its interesting dome was
removed from behind the copper dormer.
Architect Earl C. Maxwell oversaw the rebuilding of the parapet wall
along the roof line at the same time.

The parapet below the copper dormer was rebuilt in 1912 when the tower was removed -- photo by Alice Lum

In the meantime, for the most part, the building continued
to fill with apparel concerns. The
ground floor space would be home to Truly Warner men’s hat store for over a
decade, into the 1920s. Meanwhile,
upstairs were B. Light Company, clothing makers, run by Benjamin Light; the
Linocord Suspender Company that made suspenders, belts and garters; and Rhine
& Heiman makers of youths’ and men’s clothing.

Truly Warner "Hatter to Mr. Goodresser" operated its hat store here for years. Their straw boater was selling for $2 in 1918.

In the 1930s apparel makers Saperstein & Brothers,
Samuel Frankel, and Eli Feldstein were doing business here; and in 1942 S.
Schneider took an entire floor for its millinery factory.

But times were changing for the hat and apparel
industry. By mid-century the garment
district had established itself along Broadway and 7th Avenue in the
30s. The neighborhood around No. 722
Broadway experienced decades of neglect as more industrial uses were found for
the old structures.

In 1943 Rustain Products had its offices here. The firm’s premier product was Zud, a rust
and stain remover. The company marketed
Zud as a “household cleaner used to maintain tubs, sinks, ranges and other
household fixtures in good condition.”

A decade later Munves Manufacturing Corporation ran a
machine shop from the building. The firm
said “coin machine work is our specialty, including cabinets, silk screen and
overnight duplication.”

But if the address of No. 722 Broadway proved anything in
two centuries, it is simply that Broadway is ever-changing. By the 1980s the Noho district had been
rediscovered as artist galleries and studios opened. Buildings were slowly
restored and renovated, and trendy cafes and clubs moved in.

In December 1980 the building was converted to one “joint
living-work quarters” per floor above the first floor. And today Francis
Minuth’s thin and exuberant building looks much as it did a century and a
quarter ago when Broadway was changing—again.